Wal-Martians Invasion

For my rhetorical analysis I chose to analyze Barbara Ehrenreich article called “Wal-Martians Invasion”. Her purpose for writing this article is to inform people that not only is Wal-Mart taking over the world and creating hard, physical, and strenuous task to its employees. I think that she effectively persuades her the people of Baltimore that Wal-Mart does not value its employees through allusion, enumeration, and tone. She assumes that the audience, citizens of America will take a stand against a company that’s in contrary with the principle that America was founded on such as liberty, and justice. This assumption is very significant because most Americans have a strong belief against child labor laws in third world countries such as Africa. If they’re so passionate about something that’s not in their country then when the same problem arises in their own country they would be even more passionate to fight the cause.

Ehrenreich’s humorous tone throughout the article connects with the reader by making smiles between Wal-Mart and Aliens landing on earth. Later in her article Ehrenreich made a comment that showed how serious the situation was. She compares the cost of Wal-Mart’s insurance to the price of their faded glory jeans. The world would consider their jeans to be really cheap. By doing this the author puts it into perspective just how much cruel laboring that Wal-Mart customers face. This type of humor leaves a seriousness and retentive statement in the readers mind. From her background and other publications she is well known for her humor in different articles and her participation in many feminist groups.

She’s really effective in providing many facts for her argument but I think she was ineffective for providing solutions. She asked the audience “But who is prepared to step forward and show Wal-Mart how to coexist with the people of its choses planet?” Though she brings up people who are not prepared to help with the cause because of their promotion towards the argument she doesn’t give her readers a plan on how they can stop Wal-Mart’s disillusion they put towards the U.S. on treating their employees.

Overall I think the author did a good job of capturing the audience attention with all the comparison she makes with aliens. By taking this approach it allowed readers to be the aggressors which created desire to continue reading. Doing this also, the argument will resonate more with the readers and have a lasting effect on them than someone just taking a really aggressive approach by laying cold hard facts.